Prion ID Revisited

[Shane McPherson]

The sublteties of Prion id are still beyond me. And I disliike entering less-than-specific data to the OSNZ beach patrol scheme, especially when there is nothing missong on the skin and skeleton!

I am hoping that someone can help us out. The two birds here look slightly different. Could this be individual differences within the species, or are we looking at fairy (top and right), and fulmar (below and left).

lateral.JPG (139.98 KiB) Viewed 3166 times

dorsal.JPG (148.35 KiB) Viewed 3166 times

Yestrerdays Beach Patrol at Pouto (Kaipara) was rather skint. After the last two days of strong westerlies I would've expected a bit more. A seawatch from the dunes during the rough weather was awesome! Many many Procellaria were pushed up against the coast, with up to a hundered per hour shooting north just beyond the breakers. Also spotted a Thalassarche albatross.

[Colin Miskelly]

The lower (and left) bird could be a fulmar prion, based on the large culminicorn (the horny nail at the tip of the upper mandible), and the small gap between the culminicorn and nostril tube. The other bird is a typical fairy prion. Alan Tennyson has requested that the possible fulmar prion be sent to Te Papa for comparison. Fulmar prions are rarely found on mainland beaches, and it is about 20 years since either Alan or I have found them. But Alan found one on Sunday at Waikanae, so there could be a wreck happening. Look closely at those 'fairy' prions.

Colin Miskelly